It is necessary for various medical applications to place belts with sensors on the body of patients in order to measure, e.g., ECG or the temperature of the patient. The belts are often used as chest belts. The belts will be in contact with the body with a certain tensile force, and a certain lower tensile force is necessary to guarantee reliable contact of the belt, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, a certain upper tensile force shall not be exceeded to guarantee comfort.
It is necessary for this reason to keep in stock belts in various sizes, which are adapted to the patients' body sizes. However, this requires a costly effort in manufacture, storage and stocking. In addition, the patients must disadvantageously try on different belts —similarly to pieces of clothing in different sizes—until one belt will have the right size. Moreover, it is known that the length of the belts can be made adjustable by means of Velcro fasteners, buttons, hooks/eyelets, buckles or loops. As a result, an adjustable length of the belt is utilized and a residual length of the belt remains unused as an overhang on the belt. The overhang remains disturbingly on the belt and may cause potential pressure points because of the outer clothing. It is, in general, not possible to remove the overhang because of electric lines or other means for detecting the parameters of the patient's body. Hooks, eyelets, buttonholes, Velcro fasteners and Velcro hooks need to be arranged in rows, so that unused rows remain in order to make adjustability possible. The unused rows represent possibilities of error, require a greater effort and may lead to disturbances, especially pressure points with the outer clothing. Adjustability by means of buckles and loops, as, for example, in the case of backpack straps, requires some skill in order to obtain the desired length. Furthermore, the belt is present in three layers in the loop, i.e., pressure points will, in general, develop on the loop. The closure and the length adjusting member often form one unit in belts, so that the length of the belt must disadvantageously be reset after opening the belt.
US 2003/0153958 A1 shows a belt of this class with electrodes for applying to the body surface stimulating pulsating current in the frequency range of, for example, 20 Hz to 50 Hz as well as for measuring the impedance of the body. The belt consists of synthetic fibers containing 18% Nylon and 18% urethane, so that simple adaptation to different body sizes is not possible.